Anna Rice, two-time Olympian and five-time Canadian National Badminton Champion

Anna Rice is a two-time Olympian and five-time Canadian National Badminton Champion. At the Beijing Olympics, Anna became the first female singles player from a Pan American country to achieve a top-10 finish.

Born and raised in North Vancouver, Anna completed a B.A. from UBC before moving to Denmark where she lived and played professional badminton for nine years. While in Europe, Anna completed a Masters in Communication for Development, with a focus on Sport & Development.

Off the court, Anna has been an active advocate for women’s rights in sport. In 2006, she successfully led a campaign to establish an equal prize money pay distribution for the international professional badminton circuit. In 2011, Anna helped defeat a proposed clothing guideline that would force all female players to wear skirts or dresses for international competition.

Anna is passionate about “play” of any kind and has been an Athlete Ambassador for the humanitarian organization Right To Play since 2004. In 2009, Anna spent three months volunteering with Right To Play in Uganda, where, among other things, she taught badminton inside refugee camps.

Anna now lives in East Vancouver with her husband and their one year old son Robby, and is also the Head Coach and Program Director at Badminton Vancouver, a 12-court recreational badminton facility.

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Dr. Shimi Kang is a Harvard-trained physician, Medical Director for Child and Youth Mental Health for Vancouver, and a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. Her first book: The Dolphin Parent – How to Raise Smart, Happy, Successful Kids without Turning into a Tiger (Penguin-Randomhouse) is coming out in January 2014. Dr. Kang’s lives in Vancouver with her husband and three children.

Ranked #1 by Profit and Chatelaine Magazines W100 list in 2012, Kelsey has founded and run businesses as diverse as construction and children’s toys. As President of Belvedere Place Development, a land development and construction firm, she wasn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and strap on some work boots and get down in the dirt.

Kelsey delivers her talk “Play is the New PhD” at TEDxKelowna.

And as founder of Spark Play, a monthly play subscription service – as much for parents as for their kids – she finds herself back on the ground, and yes, sometimes playing with dirt; encouraging growth and development through creative play.

This formerly wayward student, born of generations of true grit and determination, triumphed when she graduated with her MBA from the highly regarded Ivey School of Business. She credits that same grit and determination for helping her overcome a devastating cancer prognosis last year – a cancer she has since overcome. In her work she balances venom and virtue, book and street smarts, while always holding that imagination and play are powers greater than knowledge.

In addition to her ongoing ventures, Kelsey provides wing man services to both budding and big business as well as provides comment to various media agencies across the country on the topics on entrepreneurship, modern play and the value of nimble thought in our modern economy. She is Mommy to three children under seven and a still-blissful bride of nine years.

Over the past two decades, Canadians have gotten to know Christine through the company’s numerous television and radio commercial spots. Now here’s your chance to meet Christine in real life.

Christine, together with her co-founding partner Steve Gunn and their dedicated team of professional associates, built a company which has achieved dominance in each regional market it entered in Canada, establishing Sleep Country Canada as the #1 Mattress Retailer in Canada. Since opening four stores in British Columbia in 1994, Sleep Country has successfully grown to over 238 corporate-owned stores in 17 regional markets.

As part of her strong philanthropic commitment to reaching out to communities, Christine has been asked on many occasions to speak to a diverse group of charities, schools, conferences and events such as Sleeping Children Around the World, Youth-In-Motion Women’s Health & Wellness conference, SMLS Career Carousel, Peterborough Women’s Business Network; to mention a few. She has also taken on an active role in mentoring students through her involvement with Ivey School of Business, 20 Under 20 and working with young professionals through Women’s Executive Network. Christine served as an Honorary Chairperson for the Hamilton YWCA, and was a proud member of the Selection Committee for YWCA – Women of influence in 2009 and in 2010.

In addition to her charitable work, Christine is on the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation Board and on the Diabetes Campaign Committee. She is also an active member of the Women’s President Organization, as well as a member of the Advisory Council for the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Christine’s leadership and foresight has led her to be recognized and receive numerous awards over the years. Most recently on November 16, 2012, Christine was honoured with the Possibility Thinker Award by Futures Possibility for Kids in Toronto. Christine was recognized by the WXN as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards in 2007 in the Professional Category and in 2010 and 2011 in the Corporate Executives category. In 2010, Canadian Living named Christine one of 35 Canadian Women Who Made our Lives Better This Year.

In 2006, Christine received an Honorary Doctorate of Commerce from Ryerson University, as well as the CIRAS Henry Singer Award for Exceptional Leadership in Retailing and Services from the University of Alberta School of Business. In 2005, Christine received the Laurier Outstanding Business Leader Award from Wilfrid Laurier University. Sleep Country Canada was also inducted into the Marketing Hall of Legends in 2005 and the Retail Council of Canada Hall of Fame in the same year. In 1998, Christine was named Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year, Retail/Wholesale by Ernst & Young. She was also recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 1997.

Christine is a graduate of Western’s Ivey School of Business.

She resides in the greater Toronto area with her husband and two children.

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Event Details

When: Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 7pmWhere: University Women's Club of Vancouver at Hycroft Manor

Join us on the evening of November 1 in the sumptuous ballroom at Hycroft Mansion for a glass of wine, some nibbles and of course lots of laughs, insights and maybe some misty tears as only Leading Moms can deliver.

Now in our 7th year, we’re talking all about the body: not just about the importance of putting yourself first and self care, but also how to have better sex after kids, how to keep your mindset positive as a mom pulled in multiple directions, as well as explore “why mommy drinks” and add even add in a bit of politics too.